Yepsen’s first appointment

Joanne Yepsen made her first political appointment as mayor-elect this week when she named Sarah Burger to the job of Saratoga Springs city attorney.

Burger, a longtime city resident and graduate of Saratoga Springs High School, starts Jan. 1. She will replace Matt Dorsey at an annual salary of $58,000. In an interview, Yepsen said she hired the Albany-based attorney for her knowledge of Saratoga Springs and experience with labor relations law.

“She’ll help us prevent some problems before they get costly,” Yepsen said. She said her incoming administration would retain Tony Izzo, the city’s longtime assistant city attorney at a salary of $53,000.

Burger will leave the firm she works to assume the full-time city job.

“I look forward to the opportunity to serve the people of my hometown, and to work with the incoming mayor to make Saratoga Springs an even better place to live and work,” Burger said.

The Yepsen team has completed interviews for deputy mayor and will make a decision soon. She wouldn’t tell me who she is considering.

Obviously, you’ve got start somewhere, but to claim she’s making the hire based on “experience” seems like more nonsense from Yepsen. It’s enough to make you wonder if all those Unions wrote her name in memo sections of their big donation checks to Yepsen.